


Seasonal OVW

by Vampalaurels



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Comedy, Feel-good, Gen, Halloween, holidays in overwatch are A Mess, more characters / relationships will be tagged as they appear, this is gonna be pretty much a load of crack bear with me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 13:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9072982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampalaurels/pseuds/Vampalaurels
Summary: Jesse McCree experiences a series of interesting occurrences (or unfortunate events) as he learns how Overwatch celebrates holidays through the year





	

**Author's Note:**

> IT TOOK ME FOREVER BUT THIS IS FINALLY OUT YES
> 
> This is a very good/bad idea (you'll be the judge) that [Jellycho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellycho), [Illune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illune) and I came up with. I know Halloween came and went but hey, holidays last as long as you want them to.

It had been six months since Jesse McCree had joined Blackwatch (was coerced into joining actually). It had been an interesting 6 months, he’d say that much. It had never occurred to him that getting caught on a raid and being forced to turn a new leaf would have gone like this. Getting used to this new environment had been difficult at first, but he was a quick learner. Now, he was starting to feel like he could call Blackwatch his new family. It was a strange, sort of messed up family, but a family nonetheless.

And no family is complete without weird holiday customs.

As a kid, Jesse had always awaited the coming of autumn. It signaled the beginning of the temperature drops that took away the unforgiving, unrelenting heat of summer. Growing up in Santa Fe, a respite from those hot months was always welcomed. It was harvest season, and his Má and Abuelita would often take him to the farmers market with them, and buy him a treat if he helped carry the bags of produce. They’d buy all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and a couple of kilos of figs, which Abuelita would later boil in honey and cinnamon sticks to make them soft and sweet.

Going Trick or Treating had been one of his favorite things as a kid, although Jesse tended to pull tricks even after being given all sorts of candy. He wasn’t mean spirited, he was just a rambunctious youth having fun. He got his fair share of scoldings for it, too.

He had looked back on those innocent, joyful days, after abandoning his life and joining the Deadlock Gang. He wasn’t a kid anymore, but he was still quite the troublemaker, and Halloween time seemed to bring out the naughty boy he had been. The scoldings he had gotten for playing pranks on fellow gang members had been much more severe than those of his childhood, but it seemed nothing could take the spirit of All Hallows Eve from Jesse McCree.

But this time, during his first Halloween in Blackwatch, Jesse McCree was in for a treat he never expected.

He hadn’t noticed the tension at first. His excitement for the arrival of Halloween had blinded him from the behaviour of those around him. He guessed that, since Blackwatch gathered people from all sorts of different cultures among its ranks, most folks in BWHQ didn’t really celebrate Halloween. Jesse didn’t pay it any mind, he planned to have fun anyway. Surely some of the American folks around base would celebrate with him, right? There was a little hop to his step, as happy as he was over the approaching holiday.

But then he started noticing the looks.

The first time had been during breakfast at the mess hall. He had been sandwiched between two other recruits, chatting amiably as they stuffed their mouths. They were laughing together, without a care in the world, and then Jesse asked them if they were excited about Halloween coming up.

It had been as if the life had been sucked out of them. They paled, jaws going slack, their eyes fixated on Jesse. After a few seconds they coughed, averted their gazes, picked up their trays and excused themselves, leaving a very confused cowboy sitting alone at the table. Jesse stared at their backs as they retreated, trying to figure out just what had caused them to react so strongly. Coming up with nothing, he shrugged it off and continued eating. But even then, he couldn’t get the haunted look on their faces off his mind. 

Especially after he started seeing it reflected in more and more faces as October neared its end.

Their base was rarely quiet. At all times there was a chaotic mix of noise: the echo of boots down the halls, chatter in a myriad of languages, stomps and punches and grunts and yells from inside the training rooms. The seemingly never ending cacophony of the mess hall and the rec room, both filled with agents who spent their downtime relaxing and catching up with their mates. Sometimes, music could be heard along the dorms. Jesse himself had a guitar he’d take with him to the rec room on occasion, to entertain himself and those willing to listen with the songs his Pá had taught him to play. 

But as the days passed by and the 31st approached, the base got quieter and quieter. People started leaving the rec room early. Training ended at 6pm sharp, after which all agents emptied the rooms and headed to the mess for a quick dinner. At 9pm, most of the personnel lay sequestered in their rooms. There were fewer and fewer stragglers looking to lift some weights or do some cardio after hand-to-hand rounds, less people lounging for a moment in the showers. Less card games after dinner, almost no yelling over what to watch on the giant holo screen on the rec room. Jesse noticed all these changes, wondering what on Earth was wrong with everybody.

But there was one change he noticed quite sharply, and it was the extended periods of absence from Commander Gabriel Reyes.

If there was something true about Reyes is that he was a hands-on kind of guy. He oversaw every single thing on base. There was rarely anything happening without Reyes knowing about it, and even if there was, it was only matter of time before he found out. If he wasn’t away on a mission, Reyes made sure to make his presence around base known. Unlike other commanders, Reyes knew his people, maybe a little too well. He kept careful track of his agents’ progress, managed their schedules, controlled most aspects of their professional lives. 

And yet, you could see him at the mess during dinner, sitting with the recruits and laughing over drinks. He’d spar with everyone, beating them into a pulp, and then offering his hand to help them up and explaining, point by point, how to avoid getting their asses handed back to them. He remembered little details like allergies, past injuries, phobias, even birthdays. Jesse was aware of all of this mostly because he had become Reyes’ shadow since he had joined Blackwatch. The Commander was always involved, which is why it was so strange to not see him around base.

This was the tipping point. It had been three days since he had last seen Reyes, and no one would tell him shit about it. So Jesse set out for answers. It was finally Halloween, and all of this weird ass nonsense was really ruining his festive mood.

The confrontation happened in the dorms. Most of his fellow agents had resorted to avoiding him completely the last couple of days, but it was easy enough to corner three of his closest friends after dinner. Martha, Larry and Moe tried to flee as soon as they saw him approaching, but Jesse needed to know what the hell was going on with everybody. Their frightened eyes flickered wildly about, looking nervously back towards the mess, then to the end of the hall, and back to Jesse. 

These were Blackwatch agents, experienced fighters, and they were cowering like children, jumping at shadows. Jesse just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

He lured them to his room with promises of a drink for their words. The apparent security of a secluded room also had a part to play in their compliance, even though they all knew they were being monitored by the system AI. Still, the three visibly relaxed as soon as Jesse shut the door behind himself. He poured each a glass of subpar bourbon, watching them nearly down them in one go. After refilling their glasses and prodding a bit, they began to explain.

Something lurks around the base on Halloween night, they explained, shooting nervous looks at each other. When pressed they would not elaborate. They couldn’t just explain it. No one could. After you spent long enough in Blackwatch, you learned there were things nobody spoke about, and Halloween Night was one of them. Yes, the agents were afraid, but of what? Neither of them would tell him. Frustrated, Jesse asked if it had anything to do with Commander Reyes’ disappearance.

The mention of that name got him an immediate reaction. Martha caught Moe’s wrist in a vice grip and stood up, tugging them toward the door as she mumbled apologies. Moe seemed too paralyzed by fear to do anything, and so let Martha drag them out. Larry had gone ghostly pale, but he didn’t run. After the door slid closed, Larry slowly motioned Jesse to sit down, eyeing the bottle on the cowboy’s hand. Jesse refilled his glass and waited. 

After a few seconds of staring at the yellow liquid, Larry spoke.

There had been a time when they were all like Jesse. Innocent, trusting, confident. However, not many had dared to pay no heed to the warnings about Halloween on BWHQ. Yes, initially everyone thought it was a joke, some kind of prank to break in the green recruits, but it wasn’t. Something did happen on Halloween, something ghastly. Larry told, no, begged Jesse to listen, to obey. Some things were better off unveiled, and this was one of them.

Being the brazen, hard headed youth that he was, Jesse didn’t listen.

It was almost midnight, and Larry had tried his best to persuade him, but Jesse would not let himself be deterred. Defeated, Larry promised him they would do their best to recover him in the morning. With a sad wave, he bid Jesse farewell as he stepped out of the safety of his room.

He was met by two things as he wandered down the hall. One, almost absolute darkness. Not even the motion triggered lights activated as he walked. The second one was the crushing silence. It was so absolute Jesse could hear a buzz in his ears, his every step seeming unnaturally loud. As he walked past more living quarters on his way to the rec room, Jesse could swear he heard whimpers and frightened murmurs. There was one that could have been a whispered prayer.

As he advanced, Jesse noticed his pulse quickening. He wasn’t a coward, but something about this entire deal, despite how ridiculous it all seemed, put every nerve of his body on edge. He caught himself checking around corners and pitch black halls, looking for any sign of movement. Mentally he dismissed such behavior as stupid, there couldn’t possibly be something haunting the halls of their base. This was most certainly an elaborate ruse which every single agent on the roster, including Commander Reyes, participated in to fuck around with the rookies. 

Well, no one took Jesse McCree for a fool, and he would not let this damned joke ruin his favorite holiday.

And then he heard the music.

His head whipped back, eyes scanning the dark from which he had come. He could see nothing, but he definitely heard music, the sound muffled by distance. His heartbeat accelerated despite his attempts at remaining calm. This was a prank, it had to be. Surprise gave way to irritation, which Jesse voiced quite loudly, requesting for whoever was trying to play him to kindly go fuck themselves.

But the darkness of the night offered no response to his angry demands. Jesse had half a mind to go investigate the source of the music, to find the asshole behind all this and beat them into a bloody pulp. He was positively seething as he stood completely alone on the hall, busy planning murder, when he realized two things.

One, he recognized the song. It was a real old tune his Abuelita liked to dance to, a song in spanish about soft kisses. The music was familiar, but it sounded somehow distorted, as if the ensemble playing the melody weren’t tuned.

Two, whatever was playing the music had gotten closer.

The second realization turned his blood into ice, cold beads of sweat beginning to slide down his spine. Jesse’s eyes searched frantically in the dark. In the back of his mind he cursed himself for his outburst, understanding far too late that he had given out his position to whatever was playing that music. Well, let the bastard come, he thought, tapping on his rapidly dwindling reserve of courage.

Swallowing thickly, Jesse rounded the corner. Before him stretched a long hallway, the left side of which was glass, overlooking the night landscape, moonlight streaming through. He waited a few seconds, trying to discern any other noises aside from the eerie music, footsteps, rustling, anything. Measuring his own steps to make as little noise as possible, Jesse made his way down the hall, back pressed firmly against the wall. He tiptoed around the pools of light as if they were searchlights, and his eyes darted from one end of the hallway to the other, alert to any movement.

Jesse was halfway down the hall when the music stopped. He halted, almost jumping at the sudden silence, breathing fast and sweating cold. He strained to see into the darkened corner ahead, but he couldn’t distinguish anything outside of the pool of light from the window. Outside, an owl hooted.

The steps were loud as gunshots in the silence of the base, every one sending jolts of fear through Jesse’s body. Then, along with the steps, came the light. A quivering glow, like a candle, slowly coming to illuminate the bend in the hall. With each heavy footstep the light came closer, and the closer it got the more frightened Jesse became.

A cold bead of sweat slid down his neck as Jesse took a single step back. The noise he made was a loud as a bomb in his ears. Right around the corner, the light stopped, flickering as if a draft had almost blown it out. He swallowed thickly, his mind screaming at him to run, to turn tail and haul ass before whatever waited just around the corner decided to come for him. But he did not move, could not will his legs to work. Within him, the curiosity that his Abuelita had said many times would bring him trouble bubbled to the surface. He wanted, needed to know what it was that had an entire base of trained agents jumping at shadows and hiding in their rooms.

The steps resumed. The light turned the corner.

The first thing Jesse saw was the wicked, twisted grin and the glowering bright eyes. It took Jesse half a second to realize he was looking at a Jack-o-Lantern, sitting gingerly over a pair of broad shoulders clad in a dark coat with a high neck. Heavy boots came to a stop at the edge of the pool of moonlight, those empty glowing sockets assessing Jesse, studying him. It must have been a trick of the light, combined with his own raving mind, but Jesse could have sworn the grin stretched even more.

The - ghost, monster, headless apparition - _thing_ lifted its arms, extending them to its sides. Jesse followed the movement, his heart beating loud in his ears. It stilled again, cocking its… head?... slightly to the side.

The music started again.

_Suavemente, bésame, que quiero sentir tus labios…_

The thing started a strange series of movements, coming at Jesse fast.

_… besándome otra vez._

The ghost image of that grin remained burned in his retinas as Jesse turned and ran like the Devil himself - or something worse - was coming for him.

\--  
_  
His muscles ached as he was thrown into a spin, crashing into that solid chest again, the light from within the lantern blinding him as he struggled in an iron grip. He had cried out, begged in every language he knew, for someone to come help him, or kill him, but no one had come. He had cursed in ways that would have made his Má disown him and the pious people of the town turn to the priest. He wondered, through the haze of exhaustion, if this was what Hell was, and if this was his punishment for all his sins._

_Another spin. His legs gave out under him, but those arms kept him up, maneuvering him like he was a ragdoll in the hands of a child. He was so tired, his entire body screamed, his vision swam, mind slipping in and out of consciousness._

_And the song, that damned song kept playing, assaulting his ears and making him delirious. He was a puppet in the hands of a hellish puppeteer, bent and thrown this way and that before a haunting orchestra of condemned souls._

Suavemente, bésame, que quiero sentir tus labios, besandome otra vez…

_The song played on. With the last of his strength, Jesse screamed._

\--

“Jesse! C’mon kid, answer me!”

“He looks like he went through hell.”

“I’m not surprised. Didn’t you see the feeds? They went at it for hours.”

“Hey, I think he’s waking up.”

The first thing he noticed was the light. Not the scorching yellow light of those eyes that seemed to burn with the coals of Hell, but the gentle light of the early morning sun. The voices called to him, ringing loud and almost strange in Jesse’s ears. Under their words he could still hear that song.

The second thing he noticed was that his entire body hurt. His muscles felt like goo, his bones pulverized. With a monumental effort, Jesse willed his eyelids to open.

The blurry shapes of three faces greeted him. After a few seconds, Jesse could finally make out the features of Larry, Martha and Moe, all with equally worried but somewhat relieved expressions. 

“There you go, kid. Woah, take it easy!” exclaimed Larry as Jesse tried to sit up. With a grunt he laid back down, Larry’s hand keeping him in place. “Welcome back to the land of the living, McCree.”

“Wha…” Jesse tried to ask, his voice hoarse from all the screaming. “What happened?”

His three companions looked at each other before turning to look at him. Coming to a sort of silent understanding, Larry motioned to Moe, who stepped next to Jesse and hauled him up. He found he was too exhausted to complain. Moe carried him to a nearby couch, putting him down on the cushions as Martha deposited a glass of water in his hands. Her hands remained as she helped him bring it up to his lips. 

The cool water helped relieve his aching throat. After he drank half of it Martha took the glass back and sat down next to him, looking up at Larry and Moe with a strange expression on her face. It was like she was torn between frowning and smiling. The other two wore similar expressions, looking down at Jesse with a mixture of concern and amusement.

Jesse decided he was tired of all this bullshit.

“What the hell happened?” he asked after making sure his voice would not break.

Moe and Larry exchanged a look. Moe produced a tablet and handed it to Larry, who thumbed in a couple of commands. He deposited it on Jesse’s hands, the display showing the frozen image of the rec room. A security feed.

“Better see it for yourself, kid,” Larry said, sinking down on the couch at the other side of Jesse. Moe rounded the couch, coming to stand behind them, watching silently. Larry reached over and touched the ‘play’ button. “You would not believe us otherwise.”

The feed came to life. Jesse noticed that it was sped up, the timer approaching midnight fast. He bit his lip and waited.

 

At around 00:08 am, someone came running into the rec room. Jesse recognized himself as the figure in the video hit the back of a couch and tumbled over it, landing hard on the other side. Then, someone else appeared on camera. It was the thing that had chased him, Jack-o-Lantern head and all. It came towards the Jesse on the video, who scrambled back and away from it. A gloved hand took hold of his arm and hoisted him up, keeping him trapped as he trashed to break free. Jesse saw himself punch, kick and bite at the thing, but it was futile. It dragged him to the center of the room. The feed had no sound, but Jesse could see himself screaming, face contorted in silent anger and terror.

Then started the really weird part.

The thing trapped Jesse in its arms, impervious to his angry demands and desperate writhing, and started to _dance._

Jesse’s eyes went wide as he watched himself being pulled around in what he recognized was _a salsa routine._ The thing led the dance, pulling and pushing and throwing Jesse around, not caring that its partner was less than willing to participate. He couldn’t hear it, but Jesse would never forget the song that monster was dancing to.

Larry touched the corner of the screen to fast forward the recording. Jesse watched himself and the thing dance around the rec room at an almost comical speed, until Larry stopped the feed again. The timer now signaled 5:08 am.

The feed resumed at its normal speed. The Jesse on the video was passed out in the arms of the thing. It dragged Jesse to a nearby chair and deposited him on it, taking a couple of steps back before turning and looking directly at the camera. A chill ran through Jesse’s body as he saw that grin and burning eyes looking back at him. The thing stared for a few seconds, before pulling up its hand and lifting two fingers. A peace sign.

The thing walked away, leaving a dead tired Jesse slumped on a chair. A few minutes later he had woken up and tried to walk away, but his legs wouldn’t support him, so he lay on the floor and stayed there until his companions found him, almost an hour later.

 

Larry took the tablet from him and set it aside. Jesse was trying to wrap his head around what he had just seen. If it weren’t for the pain in his entire body, Jesse would have been inclined to believe it was all a lie. But he couldn’t deny it. He had been attacked by a thing with a Jack-o-freaking-Lantern for a head and forced to dance salsa with it for 5 hours.

“What the _fuck,_ ” was all he could say in the end, turning to look at each of their companions. It seemed that was a better response than what they had expected, because the three of them cracked smiles.

“We tried to warn ya, Jesse,” said Moe, giving him a few pats on the shoulder.

 _“What the fuck,”_ Jesse repeated, gesturing at nothing in particular.

“It’s a… uh… it’s a sort of tradition, I guess?” Larry said, his smile turning sheepish. “Remember when you asked if we celebrated Halloween? Well, there is no one around here that’s a bigger Halloween nut than Commander Reyes.”

“I reckon we should have told you,” said Martha, her smile apologetic, “but it’s… complicated.”

“As I’m sure you noticed,” Larry continued, “Reyes starts behaving erratically as soon as October rolls around. We see less and less of him until we stop seeing him altogether. Then, on Halloween night, these things walk around the halls playing that goddamn song from midnight to dawn. Whoever is found wandering the base is forced to,” he paused, gesturing towards Jesse. “Well, you know.”

“What the fuck,” Jesse said again, his eyes moving from one face to the other.

“You should be happy, though,” Martha said, obviously trying to lighten up the mood, “you resisted well! We feared we’d find you in a way worse state, after what happened with Dale…”

Jesse stared at her, disbelieving. “Who the fuck is Dale?”

 _“Exactly,”_ said Larry.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a trip, let me tell ya.
> 
> [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPiEbYSF9kE) is the song Pumpkin Gabe plays. Credits for this go to [Nikolisis.](https://twitter.com/nikolisis)
> 
> Next up: Jesse faces Gabriel during Día de Muertos demanding an explanation. Needless to say he gets more out of it than he expected.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!  
> hmu on [tumblr](http://vampalaurels.tumblr.com) or [twitter](http;//twitter.com/vampalurels) if you wanna talk!


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